


In Memory

by Dragonsigma



Category: The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-20 03:27:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7388671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonsigma/pseuds/Dragonsigma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maia had not expected anybody to notice the date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Memory

Maia had not expected anybody to notice the date. It simply did not occur to him that anybody would know, that anyone would care, that anyone would want to. He had been alone in his memorials for years, kept quiet by the knowledge that Setheris would scorn it, perhaps even laugh at it. What use were a halfblood boy’s prayers for a discarded goblin empress?

Here, in the Court where he was Emperor, they would not laugh, though they might think him strange. But for them to have any reaction at all would require them to first know the significance of the date, and there was no reason for them to know. Even if they did, he did not much care what the courtiers thought of him any longer, for their concerns were petty things, worth far less than the opinions of his people in matters of ruling, and, in personal matters, far less than the opinions of his friends.

Still, he did not expect anyone to ask. And so he kept the date in his own way, thinking of her, wrestling a sliver of time free from his tight schedule for the meditation she had taught him.

It was late in the evening, when his edocharei were preparing him for bed, that Cala asked what troubled him. 

Thinking back on it, he should not have been surprised that Cala cared, but it had been difficult to throw off the habits of a household where nobody did.

He explained, and Cala nodded solemnly, and instead of some comment on how Maia should have told him earlier, turned to Nemer and said something Maia didn't hear.

Nemer ran off, and a few minutes later returned with the sort of candles used for remembrance in Barizhan.

And as Maia lit them, he thought that his mother would be very pleased to know that he had found a life where he was so loved, by so many friends.

**Author's Note:**

> Join the tiny fandom discussion and RP at http://www.slashnet.org/webclient/thegoblinemperor


End file.
